Prayer Vigil Held For Critically Injured Hillcrest School Student

A group of township residents gathered in the performance gazebo at the Municipal Complex on October 31 to pray for an 11-year-old township boy who was severely injured in an auto accident.

Meanwhile, the school district’s PTOs banded together to gather food gift cards and create a “meal train” for the boy’s family.

Organized by Millie Roman and Marisol Porter, the vigil was attended by about 14 people.

Holding hands in a circle in the gazebo’s center, the group prayed aloud for the boy and his family.

According to police, the boy was struck shortly before 9 a.m. October 21 while crossing Franklin Boulevard, near Hillcrest School.

Police said the boy, who was not identified, was listed in critical condition at a local hospital.

“We know that the doctors gave a prognosis, but our God is a God of miracles still, a God that hears our prayers and answers our prayers,” Roman told the group. “We just want to raise up Matthew up to God … and we want to lift up the family.”

Roman said she wanted to do the vigil because a miracle is needed.

“We believe where two or more are gathered, He is in the midst, and we believe right now our hope is in God,” she said. “The doctors have given some prognosis and we can’t really rely just on people. People are limited and God is limitless, and we believe that just by coming together, praying and lifting the young boy up, He will hear our prayers and He will do a miracle.”

“My heart has been sick over this incident,” Porter said. “I just wanted to do something, I was ready to go to the hospital, just to find the family just to pray with them. I knew that couldn’t happen, so me and Millie wanted to organize just prayer time to lift this boy up together and declare him healed.”

“It’s not about us, it’s not about the prayer, it’s about the one who heard the prayer,” she said. “It’s in His name that we come together and pray for this family and pray for this little boy’s healing.”

Nicolas DiMeglio, president of the Franklin High School PTSO and the district’s PTO/PTSO President’s Council, said that a “meal train” for the boy’s family generated enough food donations to last them until the end of November.

“Now we’re accepting gift cards so we can give them to the family, so they can use them at the hospital,” DiMeglio said.

“We’re suggesting Uber Eats and Door Dash, so that the family can have food delivered to the hospital while they’re sitting with him,” he said.

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